Chekhov

	Anton Chekhov (1860 -1904 )
	Anton Chekhov (1860 -1904) was the grandson of a Russian serf-this means that his grandfather was a farm laborer who could be bought and sold with the land he worked. Eventually Chekhov's grandfather succeeded in purchasing his freedom and raising a family as a free man. Chekhov's father tried to move up the economic ladder by running a general store in a small town in southern Russia, but he did not prosper. The young Anton, trying to better himself, won a scholarship to medical school. While he was studying in Moscow, his father went bankrupt, and Chekhov had to support his parents, his brothers, and sister. He managed to support his family and to stay in school by writing stories and sketches for humor magazines. These short, light pieces, published under an assumed name, earned Chekhov a popular following, a steady income, and an opportunity to develop as a writer. After receiving his medical degree, he only practiced medicine for a short time. He chose to continue a writing career instead. By the time he was in his thirties, Chekhov was recognized as a serious writer and was wealthy enough to purchase a country estate, an unexpected achievement for the grandson of a serf.
In the last years of his short life, knowing he was dying from tuberculosis, Chekhov wrote five full-length plays, all dealing in some way with the theme of loss. Four of them are considered masterpieces of realistic drama: The Sea Gull, Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Chekhov died tragically young, when he was only forty-four years old. The critic V. S. Pritchett says that the stories are Chekhov's life, tunes that his home of Russia put into his head. "'What is the meaning of life?" Olga (his wife) once asked in a letter, Chekhov replied: 'It is like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot and nothing more is known."
Open "Elements of Literature, Fourth Course" to Page 216 and read "The Bet"